Pandemic
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: AU set after "The Grand Gesture". In the middle of a nationwide epidemic, Matt Casey and Gabriela Dawson failed to show up for shift and nobody had heard from either of them. Kelly Severide stopped by their home to investigate.
1. Chapter 1

Pandemic

A/N: As with "Violation", Casey's home is switched from the apartment on the show to a 2-story house for more dramatic purposes that will be revealed in a later chapter. Hope you enjoy, please read and review!

Boden came up to Kelly and asked him, "Severide, have you seen Casey yet this morning?"

"Uh, no, Chief, why?" Kelly asked.

"Shift starts in ten minutes, he's never late, I tried calling him, just got his voicemail, I tried calling Gabby too and she's not answering either."

Kelly took that news in and wasn't sure what to make of it. He hadn't really noticed Casey or Gabby being absent, but he'd been a bit preoccupied that morning.

"I'll swing by their place and see if they're there...I hate to think something could've happened but I guess it's possible," he said.

Boden nodded, "Let me know what you find."

"Got it," Kelly said as he headed to his car.

Severide knew it wasn't likely he'd get a response either, but all the same he took out his phone and called Casey, it went straight to voicemail. He tried Gabby's number too, her mailbox was full. Something wasn't making any sense, and he hoped they were alright.

In ten minutes he pulled up outside Casey's home, his pickup truck was in the driveway, already this wasn't looking good. Severide got out of his car and went up to the front door, and found it ajar.

"Casey? Gabby?" he called out as he pushed the door open and stuck his head in. "Anybody here?" He inched his way in and looked around.

He headed to the living room, and saw Casey passed out on the couch, a bottle of something was on the floor and it looked like he'd helped himself to a large portion of it.

"Casey?" Severide walked over to the unconscious man and saw he was in a dead sleep and his whole face was covered in perspiration. He felt Matt's forehead and he was definitely warm. Severide figured they had to have a thermometer somewhere leftover from when they had Louie, so he headed to the bathroom and looked through the medicine cabinet, and finally found a digital forehead model. He turned it on and headed back to the living room and placed it against Casey's temple and waited. It beeped and the screen read 100.9.

Then something dawned on Kelly, how quiet the house was.

"Gabby?" he called as he headed to the bedroom. "You here?"

An unusual sight met his eyes. The bedroom was a mess, various things had been tossed all around the room, the closet door was wide open and a whole section of Gabby's clothes were gone. What the hell was going on? Severide headed back towards the living room, and in passing, saw Casey's phone laying on the table. Curiously, he picked it up, it looked like Casey had been in the middle of sending Gabby a text message but never finished it:

Plz come back

We can fx ths

There was more under that but it stopped being coherent. Severide looked through Casey's phone and saw several messages sent to Gabby last night, more legibly written, but there was no response to any of them. What the hell? He took out his own phone and called Boden.

"Chief, I'm here...Casey's here, and he's sick, he's got a high temperature and he's definitely not in any shape to come in today. For that matter...I think I'm going to have to opt out too, I think I better stay here and keep an eye on him, Chief...Gabby's gone."

"What do you mean gone?"

"I don't know, her stuff's gone and it looks like she walked out on him," Severide looked around the room, wondering what took place here the last few days.

He heard Boden grumble something under his breath, then he asked Kelly, "How bad is he?"

"High fever, he's _really_ out of it, I think it must be the flu," Kelly said.

He could just picture Boden nodding his head as he told the Squad lieutenant, "I don't need to remind you we're in the middle of a very _dangerous_ flu season right now, we won't take any chances. I'll call in a replacement for both of you today, let me know if there's any change in his condition."

"Copy that, Chief."

Kelly disconnected the call and looked at Casey, who weakly moaned and moved on the couch.

"Casey," he said as he went over to the other man, "are you okay?"

Casey groaned and sat up and pressed a hand to his forehead like he was in agony.

"What happened?" Kelly asked him.

Casey just let out another moan, then he made a choking sound in his throat, and jumped off the couch and ran for the downstairs bathroom. The noises that followed suggested to Severide that he'd just barely made it, he went to the bathroom to check on Casey, and he found his friend on the floor with his head in the toilet. Kelly knelt down beside him and patted his back, "Take it easy, buddy, I've had a lot of rough nights, I've been in this exact position plenty of times."

A strained noise escaped from Casey's throat that sounded like something was trying to turn him inside out.

"Okay, maybe not _exactly_ the same," Kelly added as he rubbed Casey's back, "calm down, breathe, take it easy."

After a couple minutes Casey finally seemed to calm down, he hit the lever, slowly pulled himself up, moved towards the sink, rinsed his mouth out, then blew his nose, and held onto the granite counter to support himself.

"You feeling better?" Kelly asked.

Casey shook his head slowly and got out a quiet moan. If Kelly had to guess, he'd say Casey had one _bad_ sore throat, he could barely talk.

"Come on, buddy, let's get you upstairs to bed," Severide lightly pushed him towards the door.

Casey shook his head and maintained a death grip on the counter.

"Come on, Casey, you can't stay here all day," he told him.

But Severide quickly found out Casey couldn't stay in bed either. An hour later he pushed back the covers and made another mad dash for the bathroom and threw up again. Severide had had plenty of mornings of bad hangovers, but he'd never been as bad as this, Casey's whole body wracked and shook with every bout of nausea and he sounded like something was ripping him apart. After which he shook and shivered as he went back to bed, but after a while the covers became too hot and only spurred on another vomiting fit, there was simply no way for Casey to win.

In between runs to the bathroom, when Casey actually seemed to be trying to sleep, Severide checked out the contents of the kitchen. Apparently some things never changed, the only things in the fridge were leftover pizza and some beer. He ransacked the cupboards but didn't find much there either, and definitely nothing for a sick person, so he got on the phone with the grocery store and placed a delivery order for everything he could think Casey might need for the next couple days.

The next time Casey threw up, Severide went into the bathroom with a cold can of ginger ale and tried to persuade his friend to drink it, but Casey merely shook his head and refused. His face was pale, his eyes looked like they hurt to stay open, and in fact several tears had been wrenched from them in the last bout of nausea.

"Come on, Casey, you haven't had anything to drink today, you're going to get dehydrated."

Casey shook his head again.

"Just take a sip, you need to get _something_ in you."

Casey could see he wasn't going to win, so he took the can and took the tiniest sip possible and put it on the counter, but he made no move to go back to bed.

"So you're just going to stay in here all day?" Kelly asked.

Casey nodded tiredly.

Kelly thought about it for a minute, disappeared from the room, and came back a few minutes later with a pillow, a sheet, and the cushions off the couch and set up a makeshift bed on the bathroom floor. Casey crouched down and crawled onto the cushions and laid flat on his back, the look on his face one of pure agony. Severide could see he was soaked in sweat, and then he picked up on a sickening smell and realized it was coming out of Casey's pores. And as bad as it was to him, he could only imagine how miserable it was making Casey.

Matt had closed his eyes in a vain attempt to go back to sleep, then he heard the faucet running, he looked up and weakly croaked out, "What're you doing?"

Severide wrung out a washcloth, then lathered it up with soap, then knelt down and grabbed Casey's shirt to pull it off over his head. "Gonna clean you up, ought to make you a _little_ more comfortable anyway."

Casey shook his head, "No good...just throw up again."

Severide looked down at him and told him simply, "Then I'll clean you up again."

Casey rolled his eyes and sighed, then he flinched when he felt the cold washrag touching his skin, he groaned and grimaced in response to feeling it on his face, then his neck, his chest, under his arms, then again when Severide got another rag wet to wash off the soap. When it was finally over, Kelly draped the sheet over him as he lay on the cushions shivering.

A few hours passed without anymore incidents, and at first Severide was relieved and thought they were finally making progress, then he realized what it had to mean and he was worried. He knew by now the first can of ginger ale would be flat, so he cracked open another one and took it to the bathroom, he tried to get Casey to drink it, but the Truck captain kept his mouth shut, shook his head and refused.

"I know," Kelly said sympathetically, "you don't want to drink because you don't want to throw up."

Casey nodded stubbornly.

"That's because you're too dehydrated _to_ throw up right now, Casey."

Matt merely shrugged.

"Casey, if you don't drink something you're just going to get sicker."

That didn't seem to faze him.

"If you don't drink something, you're not going to leave me any choice but to call an ambulance and have them give you an IV, you want _that_ instead?" Severide asked him.

Casey glared at him, then finally took the can and took a small drink and reluctantly swallowed.

"There, better?" Kelly asked.

He heard a gurgling noise from somewhere inside Casey's body, then saw his cheeks puff up as he turned over on his knees and scrambled over to the toilet to throw up again. Severide moved over towards him and cradled Matt's head in his hands as his whole body spasmed, mostly in a fit of dry heaves since he didn't have anything left in him to throw up.

"I'm sorry, buddy, I'm sorry, but you've got to try and drink something."

Casey moaned and it sounded like a small 'no', just before another heaving episode overwhelmed him.

Severide could already feel Casey's skin growing dry and scaly like a fish out of water, he knew it'd be far worse by the time his stomach actually settled down, but he didn't know what else to do. When Casey finally calmed down and crawled back to his bed, Severide rinsed out the washrags in the sink and washed him again, much to the obvious dismay apparent on Casey's face. He groaned and squirmed and even tried hitting Kelly a couple times to make it stop, but Kelly got him cleaned up and then covered him with the sheet again so he could rest.

It was a long and excruciating day, followed by a longer and even more excruciating night that seemed like it would never end. Every couple hours Casey got up to throw up again, then finally around 3 in the morning he fell asleep and seemed to stay asleep, and Severide followed suit, sleeping on a spare pillow and blanket he'd laid out on the hall floor outside the bathroom, so he'd be right there if Casey needed him. Before he'd done that, he'd taken out his own phone and sent Gabby a message, asking simply: Where the hell are you?, there had been no response, and he was starting to think there wouldn't be.


	2. Chapter 2

Severide didn't know how long he'd been asleep, but the next thing he was aware of was the sound of Casey moaning in pain. He opened his eyes, turned over and saw Casey trying to move on the cushions but didn't seem to have much luck. Severide got up and saw it was 6:30 in the morning.

"Casey, what's wrong?"

Matt tried to turn over but just rolled flat on his back and groaned, "My back's killing me."

"No wonder, you've been laying on it for 20 hours," Kelly said as he moved over towards him. "How're you feeling otherwise?"

"My chest hurts, my ribs hurt, my stomach hurts," Matt croaked out in a voice notably louder than yesterday, though still not back to normal.

Kelly reached up to the sink counter and grabbed the can of ginger ale from yesterday. It was beyond flat and warm but it was still something to drink.

"You need to drink something."

"Not that."

"Just a little," Severide set the can down, grabbed Casey's wrists and pulled him up into a sitting position, Casey moaning in protest the entire time. Once he was actually up, he swallowed a mouthful of ginger ale and put the can down. They waited, and nothing happened.

"Okay, so you should be able to eat today," Kelly said.

"I _need_ a shower," Casey moaned.

"Can you get up?" Severide asked.

Casey groaned in answer, he fell back against the cushions and tried turning on his side.

"Okay, give me a minute," Severide said as he stood up, and thought about this.

He went over to the shower, pulled back the curtain and turned on the taps. He let the water get lukewarm, then went back over to Casey, crouched down, grabbed him and pulled him to his feet, with Casey moaning in pain the entire time.

"What the hell are you doing?" he wanted to know.

"Well those clothes will have to be washed anyway," Severide said, "so we'll just go from here."

Casey leaned back against him and groaned again as his back protested standing up so quickly.

"A hot shower should help loosen everything up," Kelly told him as he helped walk Casey across the bathroom and step up into the shower, Casey immediately grimaced as the water hit him and tried to move back, but after being in bed all day with nothing to eat or drink he lacked the strength to stay upright for very long, let alone try to get away. Kelly eased Casey down to the floor of the shower stall and pulled the curtain shut behind him and told him, "Yell if you need anything, I'll get started on breakfast."

"Very funny," Casey dryly called from the other side of the curtain.

* * *

Severide slammed his phone down on the table. There had been no response from Gabby, not to his phone _or_ Casey's, he'd already checked. He knew there wasn't any point asking Casey what was going on while he was as sick as a dog, but he also didn't know who else to ask. He'd already called Sylvie to see if she knew, and she was just as clueless as he was. And the fact Gabby hadn't said anything to Boden about not showing up for next shift, that was even worse. It was like she'd vanished off the face of the earth. Wherever she was, the rest of her things she'd left behind were _also_ vanishing off the face of the earth. While Casey was in the shower Kelly took the liberty of taking the rest of her stuff out of the closet and the bedroom and putting them in a storage closet for the time being. If she came back, though he wasn't sure that was likely, she could get them out of there. But Casey was likely going to spend a large part of the next couple days in the bedroom and Severide figured he'd rest easier if he didn't have to look around at her things and be reminded that she wasn't there.

After half an hour, he was just about to see if Casey needed anything, when he heard the sound of something crashing, followed by a muffled "OW!", and Kelly ran to the bathroom to see what happened.

"Casey? You alright?"

The only response was a quieter, "Ow," from behind the shower curtain, the water was still running.

"Casey?" Severide walked over to the shower, "What happened?"

There was a brief pause before he finally responded, "I fell."

"Are you hurt?" by which Severide meant more than just the initial pain of falling on the floor.

Despite Casey's labored breathing, he replied, "No."

"Can you get up?" Kelly asked.

There was silence for a couple seconds, then another, more hesitant, "No."

"Okay," Severide said, figuring out what he was going to do now.

The first thing he did was reach past the curtain and turn the water off. Then he grabbed a towel off the rack, unfolded it and told Casey, "I'm not looking, I'm gonna get you up, I'm not looking." He held the towel up and pulled back the curtain and crouched down to Casey's current height and wrapped the towel around his ribs.

"Did you hit anything?"

"Besides the obvious?" Casey asked with a moan.

"Did you hit your head?"

"No."

Kelly nodded and exhaled in relief. Then he grabbed Casey under the armpits and pulled him to his feet and helped him out of the shower. It was only then that he saw how bright pink Casey's skin was.

"You look like a lobster, what the hell did you do to yourself?" Kelly asked.

"I couldn't get warm," Casey weakly replied as a retching sound started working its way up to his throat.

"Now you're going to make yourself sick again, get over here," Severide walked him over towards the sink and turned on the cold water and had Casey lean his head down by the faucet as he choked. Severide grabbed a wash rag, ran it under the water, then smoothed it over Casey's face, drawing a small pained gasp from the other man. Severide kept running the rag under the cold water and dabbing it across Casey's hair, the back of his neck, and clear down his spine to help him cool down. Casey started to calm down but his face was still bright pink and his cheeks were hot to the touch, so Kelly doused the rag again and pressed it against them one by one until they were notably cooler to the touch. Through it all nothing came up, though Casey swallowed a few handfuls of the cold tap water, but it took a while for him to fully calm down after getting out of the heat of the shower.

"Feeling better?" Severide finally asked as he shut off the tap.

Casey pressed his hands against the counter to steady himself as he stood straight and slowly nodded, "Yeah, thanks."

"I mean compared to yesterday."

Casey merely nodded again.

"Good, go get dressed, I made you some soup," Kelly patted his shoulder.

"Yes, Mom," Casey remarked as he padded off to the bedroom.

* * *

Casey scrunched up his face as he entered the kitchen, "What's that smell?"

Severide stood by the stove spooning a ladle full of hot soup into a bowl. "I told you I made soup."

Casey suspiciously eyed the large pressure cooker on the front burner. "Yeah, that usually means opening a can."

"Not this stuff," Kelly told him, "my mom used to make this when I was a kid and got sick. After you eat this you won't touch the canned stuff again."

"I don't eat it anyway," Casey replied as he walked over to the table.

Kelly snorted and remarked, "I _know_. I know you like living off cold pizza and beer, but for the time being you're _really_ gonna have to eat something more substantial if you're going to get better."

Casey took the bowl from him and wearily eyed the concoction with large pieces of shredded white meat and big egg noodles. His stomach might have settled down but given he hadn't eaten anything for two days and couldn't say for certain, he wasn't too sure about this.

"Just try it," Severide insisted.

Casey picked up the spoon, blew on it and swallowed. The hot broth burned his throat, temporarily overriding the soreness, and there was a _lot_ of salt in it.

He was surprised. "That's pretty good."

"Glad you like it, because there's plenty of it," Severide pointed to the large pressure cooker on the stove.

Casey thought back and told him, "There wasn't any chicken in the fridge."

"I know, I had everything ordered in," Kelly told him.

Casey looked at him skeptically, "What's 'everything'?"

"The ginger ale, everything for the soup, crackers, about a dozen boxes of Kleenex, Powerade, orange juice."

"I'm not real thirsty," Casey said.

"Yeah well I thought of that too," Kelly went over to the freezer and took out a box of popsicles, "Whether you are or not, you're too dehydrated, so you'll have to do _something_ to put it back."

Casey didn't know what to say. Nobody had gone to so much trouble to make sure he was eating well since...Hallie.

"Thanks," was all he could think of, though he doubted he'd be needing them.


	3. Chapter 3

Casey spent the first day out of bed doing little more than lounging around the house watching TV. Kelly stayed with him to make sure he was alright, but he also touched base with Boden from time to time for an update. He also texted the others to see if anybody had any idea where Gabby was, she had still not answered any of his messages, and he'd checked Casey's phone, she hasn't answered any of his either. One by one the answers came back that nobody had seen or heard from her.

By the second day, Kelly was starting to get concerned. Casey had been moving around like a hummingbird all day cleaning up the house, he'd stripped his covers off the bed, hauled them downstairs to wash them, cleaned the bathroom, disinfected everything, and it was easy to see him starting to get winded and perspiring, but he refused to slow down. He also noticed that Casey hadn't been remembering to drink enough fluids to put back what he'd lost while he was throwing up.

"Casey," he finally spoke up, feeling like he was watching a train about to wreck, "I think you need to take it easy."

Casey looked surprised. "I feel fine...well I feel _better_ anyway."

"I know, but if you overexert yourself you can have a relapse," Kelly pointed out.

"I'm a firefighter, Kelly, and you're saying I'm going to wear out from doing some housework?"

"A firefighter who spent 24 hours in bed unable to drink anything without puking all day? Yeah, I am," Kelly told him, "and you're still dehydrated and you know it."

"Kelly, I appreciate your concern but I'm fine," Casey said.

"You're not fine, you're still sick," Kelly told him, "and this is a _horrible_ flu season and you know it."

"I know," Casey said dismissively.

"_Not_ just the sick and the elderly this time, Casey, perfectly healthy _active_ people are dying from it, the hospitals are overflowing with flu patients right now, if you relapse I won't even be able to get you to Med because they won't have a room available."

"Kelly would you stop worrying? That's not going to happen," Casey said. "I've had the flu before, I'll be over it in a week."

"Casey!" Kelly was just about to lose it, and he was trying so desperately not to, but he couldn't keep what he knew a secret any longer, "Boden's in the hospital!"

Casey turned towards him with eyes wide in shock. "What?"

"He got sick yesterday," Kelly told him. "I got a call from Donna this morning, she had to rush him to Med last night because he was having trouble breathing...and you _know_ he's not a sickly person, this _shouldn't_ be happening to him, he's just as strong and active as any one of us, but he's got the same flu you do and he's in the hospital."

The fight left Casey as his body started to limply sag with remorse at his behavior.

Kelly was practically on top of him now, breathing down his neck. "I have already lost _two_ best friends to things I couldn't control. I couldn't save Andy from that house fire, and I couldn't save Shay from that explosion, but I will be _damned_ if I'm going to lose you to a damn _flu_! Now sit down and take it easy and don't make things any worse for yourself, PLEASE!"

At the last word, Casey flinched and fell back against the couch, all resistance suddenly gone from him.

"I'm sorry, Kelly," Casey said quietly, even a bit ashamed, "I didn't know."

Kelly sighed. "I know you didn't, and I'm sorry for snapping at you, but you _know_ what we're looking at this year, it doesn't do any good to pretend this is a 'normal' flu you've got. Now just take it easy, _I'll_ get the rest of the work done, just tell me what you need."

"What about you?" Casey asked.

"If I get it, then I'll deal with it when it happens, in the meantime my priority is you," Kelly said as he grabbed Casey by the ankles and swung his legs up on the couch to lie down. "Since so many active people are dropping dead from this, the only thing I can figure is right now being _inactive_ would work better in your favor, so you just sit back and take it easy for now, I'll get you something to drink."

"But I'm not..." Casey let it go. He knew arguing with Kelly wouldn't get him anywhere now. And suddenly he was trying not to panic at this newfound information.

* * *

After lunch and after Kelly did the dishes, he returned to the living room where Casey was still lying on the couch watching TV, he took the blanket off the back of the couch and draped it over Matt as he told him, "Now I have to leave for a while and run some errands, but I'll be back later. You just take it easy while I'm gone, okay?"

"Okay," Casey sighed.

"Is there anything else you need before I go?"

Casey shook his head.

"Okay, I'll see you later," Kelly said.

* * *

"Kelly!" Boden's eyes lit up at the sight of the lieutenant entering the hospital room, though the rest of him looked as miserable as he no doubt was. Kelly froze for a second, it was so strange to see their battalion chief in a hospital gown, hooked up to he couldn't even count all the different wires they had in him.

"Hey, Chief, how're you doing?" Kelly asked, quickly recovering.

"He's been up most of the night," Donna answered for her husband. "It's good to see you, Kelly."

"Good to see you too, Donna, how're you doing?"

"Oh I'm doing fine," she answered as she continued to looked over at Wallace, "now if I could just get my husband out of this hospital I'd be ecstatic."

"How-" Boden barely got the word out before he broke out coughing, he tried to clear his throat and ask again, "How's" but another coughing fit took over, and whatever he was trying to ask, it simply wasn't coming.

"How's Matt doing?" Donna asked Kelly, to which Boden pointed at her to emphasize that was his question.

"I think he's doing better, I'm trying to make sure he doesn't overdo anything and relapse," Kelly said, "definitely _not_ easy."

"Tell me about it," Donna said as she patted Wallace on the back.

Boden tried to talk again but he doubled over coughing, and this time Kelly could hear a distinctive rattle from his chest. Then he heard the monitors beeping and screaming and people started coming in and Kelly was pushed out of the way.

"What's going on?" he asked, completely lost on what just happened, as was Donna who was to her feet and trying to talk to Wallace, bordering on tears and hysterics.

"Sir, we'll have to ask you to leave," one of the nurses told Kelly as she pulled him back.

"What's going on?" he asked again, but he was more or less forced out of the room before anybody would answer.

* * *

Kelly entered the house and kicked the door shut behind him, he still felt dazed by what had happened. He'd stayed in the hospital until Donna came out and explained the situation. Somehow Boden's condition had already escalated from the flu to pneumonia, he was put on medications and would be heavily monitored until his condition changed. Kelly left the hospital feeling defeated, wishing there was something he could do to help the chief but knowing there wasn't, all he could do was go back to Casey and hope he was fairing better.

He stood in the dining room and looked in at Casey, who was asleep on the couch, and didn't even stir at the noise he made as he entered. Kelly quietly stepped over towards the couch and watched Casey's chest rise and fall slowly with every even breath. He also noticed the glisten of vapor rub streaked under Casey's nose so he could actually breathe while he slept. Kelly felt some relief knowing that Casey wasn't up and pushing himself to his limit, hoping that by doing so he would avoid winding up as sick as Boden was.

There was a wastebasket by the couch that Severide had placed there just incase Casey's stomach gave him problems again even though he'd quit throwing up after the first day. There were a couple Kleenex in there and...Kelly reached past them and took out popsicle sticks, 1-2-3-4-5-6 of them, all of them still half dyed from the coloring. Kelly reached over and cupped Casey's jaw in his hand and forced his mouth open to look at his tongue. To his immense relief, Casey's entire tongue was coated greenish black from eating the popsicles while Kelly had been gone. Kelly simultaneously wanted to collapse and throw up his arms thanking God that for once, Casey actually listened to him and was doing what Kelly expected of him. He just hoped it would all be enough for Casey to recover.


	4. Chapter 4

Matt was huffing and puffing when he reached the bottom of the stairs the next day, he had to stop a minute and catch his breath.

"You okay?" Kelly asked.

Casey nodded and got out a winded, "Yeah."

"You haven't been overdoing it again, have you?"

Casey shook his head. "No, I just got up, got dressed and came down here."

"Were you doing this upstairs?"

"No." When he finally caught his breath he asked Kelly, "Any update on Boden?"

"Donna said he's doing alright but they're still watching him."

Casey sighed and groaned. "I can't believe it, out of all people, how could this be happening to Boden?"

"I told you, it's a _bad_ flu year," Kelly replied.

"Apparently." Casey looked at him. "And that means you'll probably get it next, you've been exposed to both of us."

"I'm not worried," Kelly said.

"You never are."

"Fair point. Since we've found out the hard way this year's flu shot was next to absolutely _worthless_," Kelly told him, "I thought it might be time to look into some of that alternative stuff."

Casey squinted an eye at him, "Kelly Severide believing in homeopathic cures?"

"Not exactly, I went to the pharmacy yesterday to see if they could recommend anything that might help. They had all this stuff on the counter, all made from elderberries."

"What good's that do?" Casey asked.

"I don't know, but they've got it in everything, syrups, lozenges, gummy supplements, pills, and the pharmacists swear by it...figured it couldn't hurt to try so I got a bottle of the syrup."

"Between the two of us that bottle will be gone in a week," Casey commented.

"Tastes terrible, that's for sure, but if it works..." Kelly said.

Casey nodded.

"Come on, I'll make us some eggs for breakfast."

Casey grimaced, "I don't want eggs."

"Too bad, you need something with substance if you're going to get better," Kelly told him.

Casey groaned, "I don't want any part of a chicken, I've eaten enough of that chicken soup of yours I'm about to sprout feathers."

Kelly just laughed, "Come on."

* * *

Casey was huffing and puffing again when he went back up the stairs that night to go to bed. He made his way over to the bed and collapsed on it and spent a minute waiting for his breathing to get under control. He had done very little all day and didn't understand why he kept getting winded when he went up and down the stairs. Just to test, he sucked in a large breath and let it back out, and went into a coughing fit, but he didn't hear anything rattling around. So it wasn't likely he was getting what Boden had, but what was going on?

Casey sighed and pulled down the covers, hopefully whatever it was would be gone by the next day.

* * *

Whatever it was was _not_ gone by the next day. As soon as Casey went down the stairs he struggled to catch his breath again, and Severide was there and noticed.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Casey said between gasps.

"Then what's wrong?" Kelly asked.

Casey shook his head. "I don't know."

* * *

"I don't know what's wrong with me," Casey told Kelly the next day as he got the mail, then sat down on the porch steps. "On level ground I can walk and I don't have any problems breathing. But any kind of incline or decline, and I can't catch my breath. It's not just stairs either."

"What do you mean?" Kelly asked.

Casey stuck an arm out and gestured to the sidewalk. "This whole block is on a gradual incline, the sidewalk outside each yard goes up a little higher, yesterday I walked over to the next door neighbor's sidewalk, and it was the same thing, I got winded just by going up an incline of a few inches. I don't get it, Kelly."

Severide looked at his best friend and asked him, "Do you think you need to go to the hospital?"

"No!" Casey snapped.

Kelly just nodded. "Okay." He tried to think. "It's probably nothing, you haven't had this flu for a week yet, probably just have to wait it out."

"I am so sick of waiting everything out," Casey said, "I want to be normal again and able to do something."

"I know, buddy, I know..." Kelly sat down beside him. "But you can't take that chance right now."

"How's Boden doing?" Casey wouldn't even look at Kelly, instead he stared out at the yard.

Kelly shrugged, "Donna says he's doing better but the docs say he's still not out of the woods. They're going to keep him until they're sure he's beat the pneumonia."

"This is so messed up," Casey said.

"I know."

"How...in this day and age, how can a flu get so bad that it kills so many people, _healthy_ people?" Casey asked.

"I don't know," Kelly shook his head.

Casey still wouldn't look at him, just kept his eyes focused straight ahead. After a minute he confessed, "I'm scared, Kelly."

"I know," he replied, "but look, Boden's going to be fine, _you're_ going to be fine...we just have to wait it out."

"I don't know if I can," Casey said distantly.

* * *

Kelly had been staying in the guest room at Casey's house, and that night he lay in the bed, staring at the ceiling in the darkness, thinking about everything that had been going on, and wondering what it all meant. Through the door he could hear footsteps coming up the stairs, then a few seconds later he heard them going back down the stairs. That made him sit up and take notice. Then they came up the stairs again, and a pause, and then back down. What the hell was Casey doing?

Before the footsteps reached the top again, there was a sudden scream and the sound of somebody falling down the stairs.

"Casey!" Kelly threw back the covers and ran out of the room, he reached the top landing and found the light switch and flipped it up.

Matt was sprawled over the stairs halfway between the first and second floors, breathing raggedly, his face buried in the step.

"Casey, what happened?" Kelly asked as he made his way down to his friend. "Are you alright?"

Casey had his hands pressed against the steps and made no attempt to get up.

"Come on, Matt, look at me," Kelly said as he turned him over, "are you hurt?"

Matt's eyes were closed tightly and a series of dry sobs escaped from his lips as he weakly tried to catch his breath. Kelly pulled him up and leaned Casey against him and held him tight as Casey heaved air in and out of his body at an unsettling pace.

Kelly understood, all too well he understood. Casey didn't do vulnerable well and he resented it in all aspects, and he didn't take well to the idea that because he was sick or in order to recover from his illness, that he couldn't even do normal things around the house like he'd always done. The stairs had especially become his greatest enemy since it had gotten impossible for him to go up or down them even once without having to stop and catch his breath, which in fact took several minutes to accomplish. So what had he done? He pushed himself to prove he could handle them whether he could breathe or not, pushed himself to last longer than one trip up or down, trying to rebuild his stamina, trying to push past his recent physical limitations. And either because he couldn't get enough air in while he was doing it or because he couldn't see what he was doing in the dark, he'd lost his balance and fallen down the stairs. The tears were there now, spilling over onto Severide's shoulder, pure frustration, not just from being sick but because being sick had made him so weak, and when he tried to combat the newfound physical weakness that he couldn't tolerate, he'd failed. The stairs were still his enemy, and would be however long he was sick.

Which left Kelly with a real dilemma. Right now Casey was perfectly halfway between the upstairs and the downstairs. Either way, he would have to trudge the equal length of the staircase, to either go up to his room and sleep in his own bed, or go downstairs and crash on the couch for the night. Which was in his better interest? Most of the stuff Casey needed was in easy reach downstairs, so if he slept down there, in the morning he wouldn't have to be discouraged by another trek down the stairs and getting winded again. On the other hand...being sick had taken so much from him already, Kelly thought it was cruel to take one of the last sources of comfort from him as well, being able to sleep in his own bed. As frustrating as it would be, he knew Casey would be able to make it down the stairs in the morning, and he'd be right there with him when he did. Right now his presence was the only thing he could offer his friend, whether it was enough or not, and he knew it wasn't, it would have to do.

"Come on, Casey," he patted the blonde man on the back, "let's get you to bed." He reached up and grabbed the banister to pull himself up, and grabbed Casey by the arm and pulled him up too, and they made their way up the stairs and over to Casey's room, where he promptly collapsed face down on the bed, huffing and puffing once again. In fact, he was breathing so heavily, that Kelly could actually see the cloth of the pillowcase being sucked in and out of Casey's mouth with every breath he took.

"Take it easy and try to get some sleep," Kelly told him as he headed for the door, "I'll see you in the morning."

"Don't go."

The words were muffled by the pillow but Kelly heard them all the same, and when he turned back towards Casey, he watched as the captain burrowed his face deeper into the pillow, as if he regretted actually saying them.

Kelly stepped over towards the bed and looked down at his friend and simply said, "If you want me to stay, I will. _Do_ you want me to stay?"

Casey's whole body was rigid, then there was a muffled sigh, and Kelly could just barely make out the back of his head moving up and down in a small nod.

"Okay," Kelly responded, "I will."

The next thing Casey was aware of was the springs in the mattress creaking as a sudden weight was added to the other side. He pulled his face out of his pillow, still breathing hard, and saw Kelly laying beside him.

"I'm sorry," he said, not sure what else to say.

"It's okay," Kelly told him.

* * *

Kelly wasn't sure what time it was, but he knew what it was that woke him up.

Over on Casey's side of the bed, the Truck captain was moaning in his sleep as he curled into a tight ball and shivered. Kelly reached over and pulled Casey towards him and felt his forehead. The fever was still there but it wasn't as bad as when Casey first got sick. He wrapped his arms around Casey and held him against him, hoping his body heat could assist in warming Casey up since the covers alone didn't seem to be helping.

"It's okay, Casey, it's alright, you're okay," he quietly murmured into Matt's ear, hoping the words would be of some comfort to him. "Just calm down, I've got you, you're fine."

A disturbing thought suddenly occurred to Kelly. If this was what Casey went through every night when he was sleeping, it was no wonder he was so miserable every morning when he got up.

He didn't know how long it took, but Casey finally stopped trembling and quieted down and actually leaned into him.

"It's okay, buddy, I got you," Kelly whispered.


	5. Chapter 5

Kelly helped Casey down the stairs the next morning, his 'help' consisting of little more than keeping pace with Matt and trying to be reassuring as Casey had to stop and catch his breath again.

"You'll get there, you just gotta be patient," Kelly told him as they headed to the kitchen.

"I don't _want_ to be patient," Casey replied, "I want to be _normal_ again."

"I know, and I know this is hard for you, but I still think you're better off _not_ pushing yourself. You've been able to stay out of the hospital so far, right?"

"It's _every day_, Kelly," Casey whined, "What happens if I _don't_ get better?"

"You will."

"If I was I would've seen _some_ improvement by now," Casey said. "What is wrong with me?"

"I don't know," Kelly admitted. "But getting yourself worked up is _not_ going to help you."

Tears were building up in Casey's eyes and his voice broke as he told him, "I'm so tired of this."

"Hey," Kelly put his arms around Casey and hugged him, "that's not going to help you either, you're just going to feel worse, you've got to calm down, Matt."

Casey's body heaved a couple times with sobs trying to work their way loose, but after a couple minutes he managed to choke them back down and blink back the tears.

"You okay?" Kelly asked.

"My chest is killing me," Casey said as he pulled away from Kelly, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think..."

Kelly raised an eyebrow at that unfinished sentence.

Casey went over to the cupboards and took out a bottle of aspirin, and was not oblivious to the watchful eye of the Squad lieutenant.

"Superstition," Casey merely said as he took one.

Kelly decided he would keep a close eye on Casey for the rest of the day.

* * *

Whatever was causing Casey's chest pains over the course of the day trailed down to his ribs and across to his back, and by the evening, he was laying on the floor crumpled in a ball because the pain was so bad it didn't matter which way he turned, there was no relief from it, he couldn't get comfortable laying in bed, sitting on the couch, they'd even tried piling the cushions on the floor but Casey was still in excruciating pain and at some point it got so bad he couldn't even breathe, but he was able to scream in pain. Despite all this, Casey still insisted he didn't need to go to the hospital, and though Kelly wasn't convinced of that, he decided he would respect his friend's wishes, and tried to think of something else.

"What kind of pain is it, Casey?" It seemed that Kelly had been asking that question all day trying to get a feeler on what was going on, but so far Casey had given him the brushoff every time.

In between gasps of air Matt got out, "Like a really...bad...muscle pain..."

Kelly wasn't sure why but he thought that gave him something to work with. He disappeared from the living room and came back with a couple ice packs wrapped in towels, and had Casey take his shirt off and lie facedown on them, while he rolled Biofreeze on his back, and see if it took any effect.

"I can't feel it," Casey shook his head after a few minutes, when the roll-on analgesic would usually feel like his skin was on fire.

And that, Kelly knew, was the true indicator of how bad the pain was.

Gradually though, the ice packs seemed to help and the pain in his chest and abdomen started to lessen. After a couple more hours the pain in his back started to weaken as well and he stood up, it was still miserable but he could at least breathe and move around without screaming in agony.

"I want to go to bed," he said weakly.

"You want me to carry you?" Kelly asked genuinely.

Casey's half opened eyes glared daggers at him. "Don't make fun of me."

"I'm not. You know I'd do it if you ask."

"I'm not asking," Casey shook his head.

"I can do it anyway."

"No thank you."

"Want me to help?"

Casey tiredly sighed and just held out his arm. Kelly took his hand in his and told him, "We got this, buddy."

They climbed the stairs together, Casey was still struggling to breathe when they reached the top, Kelly walked him over to the bedroom and got him settled down for the night.

"Want me to stay with you?" he asked.

Casey shook his head, leaving Kelly to question if Matt was even aware of the immense chills he seemed to experience at night.

"If you change your mind, you know where to find me," he offered.

"Thanks, but I'll be fine," Casey weakly responded.

Kelly felt some relief, that was the first time since Casey had gotten sick that he'd used that word. Fine. It gave him hope, not much, but enough to hold on to.

"Oh," he said as he headed over to the closet, "I found something in here you might want."

He'd discovered it when he was getting rid of Gabby's stuff. Two full sized plush throws still tied up, he'd vaguely remembered Casey mentioning they were an anniversary present from his niece, an obvious his and hers motif, one was pink and one was dark blue. He'd gotten rid of the pink one, now he picked up the blue one and took it over to the bed.

"It got kind of cool in here last night," he said and put it within Casey's reach, "this would definitely be more comfortable that what you currently got."

And he hoped the extra cover would help some if Casey did start shaking again in the night.

Casey eyed it skeptically for a minute, then said sheepishly, "Thanks, Kelly."

* * *

The days passed largely the same. Casey took a long hot shower, sometimes two, one in the morning and one at night, and let the water beat down on him as he breathed in the steam, though he wasn't sure it was actually helping any, at least it made him _feel_ better for a little while. He coated vapor rub under his nose, on his neck and chest to breathe easier though he didn't seem to actually be suffering from much congestion, unlike previous bouts with the flu he was not going through a box of Kleenex every single day until his nose was raw. Every day he made the dreaded trips up and down the stairs and dealt with the aftermath that always ensued. Kelly touched base with everyone from 51 to swap updates, so far nobody else had gotten sick and everybody was hoping it would stay that way. Every day, Kelly had to more or less force Casey to drink a bottle of Powerade, which they'd quickly found out gave him stomach cramps every time he drank it, so Kelly diluted it so it was half water, and that helped some but he still got cramps, but Kelly stressed how important it was he get rehydrated and get his electrolytes restored, leaving Casey little choice but to endure it. Much to Kelly's surprise, another recurring thing was Casey actually took his advice and rested each day, more surprising was how much he seemed to have fallen in love with the plush throw Kelly had found. Every single day when Casey laid down on the couch or in his bed to take a nap and every night when he went to sleep he wrapped himself up in it like the proverbial security blanket and at least seemed a little content. Kelly laughed to himself as he thought about the struggle it'd be to get it away from Casey long enough to wash it.

But through it all, with every passing day, going up or down the stairs didn't seem to get any easier for Casey. Finally one night he decided to bypass the disappointment that he knew would follow and just slept on the couch. Kelly would've preferred if Casey did more of that, but at the same time he could understand Casey's refusal to budge on the issue of being able to sleep in his own bed for the most part. He made sure that Casey was comfortable for the night, then he slept in a chair by the couch so he could keep an eye on Matt.

* * *

Severide had gone out earlier in the morning to run some errands, and while he was gone, Casey decided to take advantage of his absence and get some work done. He was going crazy sitting around the house all day. He did the dishes, cleaned the downstairs bathroom, vacuumed the living room and dusted the coffee table. Going over everything in his mind, the next thing that came up was the laundry. Casey groaned, definitely not anticipating this. Kelly had stopped off at his place and picked up a few changes of clothes since he'd be staying with Casey, and Matt didn't have any idea how he did it, but he would swear the ratio kept coming out two changes of Kelly's clothes for every one of his.

Casey went up the stairs, got the laundry basket, went into Kelly's room and picked up whatever was laying around on the floor the lieutenant hadn't gotten around to adding to the pile yet, then grabbed the large rectangular basket by the handles, lifted it up waist high, and carried it down the stairs.

The front door opened and Kelly stepped in and the first thing he noticed was the footsteps coming down the stairs and he turned his head in time to see Casey coming down with the laundry basket.

"Hey Kelly, how's it going?" Matt casually asked as he reached the floor.

Kelly looked at Casey, and then craned his neck to look back up the stairs, and fixed his gaze to the banister at the top with a very confused look on his face. Casey seemed to notice that something was off and stepped back so he was alongside Kelly, and he also looked up.

"What is it, Kelly?" he asked.

He too looked up to the top landing, not sure what it even was he was looking at. Then when he realized what it was, his eyes widened and he dropped the laundry basket.

* * *

Casey was breathing heavily as he ran, not walked, _ran_ down the stairs, and in six seconds touched the landing, then turned around and ran back up them, another six seconds, then turned around and ran down them again, holding onto the banister. Kelly stood at the bottom of the stairs grinning in amusement, this time when Casey hit the bottom of the stairs and doubled over wheezing with his hands pressed against his knees, Kelly told him, "Okay, you've made your point. I think six times in a row is enough, you'll definitely be sorry if you overdo it."

Casey laughed over his gasping breaths and stood up straight again, "You have no idea...you don't know what it means to me."

"I have a pretty good idea," Kelly clapped a hand on Casey's shoulder. "Now come on, buddy, let's get something to eat."

* * *

As well as the day had gone for Casey, Kelly was surprised when he was woken up that night by a sound coming from across the hall, and as he stepped outside his room he identified as the muffled sounds of someone crying.

"Casey?" Kelly pushed the door open and stepped into the room. "Casey, are you okay?"

In the dark he could make out the figure of Casey on his stomach with his face shoved into the pillow, at Severide's presence he slowly moved and looked up at him.

"What's the matter?" Kelly asked.

Casey sucked in a shaky breath and told him, "Gabby left me."

Not really knowing what the tactful response to that was, Kelly merely said, "I kind of figured."

"I've been so miserable...I didn't even remember it until just now," Casey groaned.

Kelly had an idea it was going to be one of 'those' nights and went around and got in on the other side of the bed.

"What happened?" he asked.

Casey shook his head. "It's a long story."

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

"I don't know...I don't know if I want to or not. Then again, you already know she's gone so why not? Do the others know?"

"They know she's gone, she never showed up for shift," Kelly pointed out.

"She...left...said she was going to Puerto Rico."

"That's a new one on me," Kelly said.

"Nothing like that...it's some paramedics program to help in disaster areas."

"And she didn't tell Boden? What the hell's wrong with her?"

"She's mad at me," Casey said. "She left me, because I didn't want us to have kids."

Knowing Casey as well as Severide did, that comment earned him a genuine, "Huh?" in return.

Casey looked over at Kelly, and realized that he was completely in the dark. "A while back, we decided to try and have another baby...we went to a fertility doctor."

"What?"

"Gabby decided...since nothing was happening on its own maybe we needed some professional help." Casey heard the cynical sounds from the peanut gallery and told Kelly, "Shut up."

"Sorry, anyway what happened?"

"The doctor said she suffered an aneurysm after the first baby she lost...and that if she got pregnant again, it could kill her."

"God..." Kelly hissed.

"Right? I'm freaking out, but Gabby is totally oblivious to this, wants to do it anyway...I say we could consider adopting, or getting a surrogate, I went and got some brochures-"

"Uh oh," Kelly said knowingly.

"Yeah...Gabby doesn't mind adopting a teenager behind my back without even asking me about it, but I gather information so we can safely have a kid and not endanger her life, and all hell breaks loose."

"And she stormed out because of that?"

"Because I called her out on all the times she only told me after the fact that she did something when we should've been in it together since we _are_ married."

"What'd she say?"

"Something about she's always been this way and I knew that when I married her and she hasn't changed."

"Well, that's kind of the idea _of_ being married, which is precisely why none of Benny's ever worked out, because he was _not_ willing to compromise," Kelly told him.

Casey got out a dry laugh as he rested his head back against the pillow. "I can just hear Gabby now if she heard you comparing her to your dad."

"So...when'd she leave?" Kelly asked.

"The night before you came here," Casey answered. "When she walked out, I dug out a bottle of whiskey...I really thought that's why I was feeling so horrible the next morning."

"Yeah that makes two of us," Kelly said. "Hell of a surprise for both of us."

Casey turned on his side and leered at Kelly and told him, "I can't believe you've stayed here this long."

"The shape you were in, you kidding me?" Kelly asked.

"Boden's in worse shape than I am, you're not staying with him," Casey said.

"Yeah but he has Donna to stay with him and you..."

The silence was thick in the air.

"And I have nobody," Casey finished the sentence. "So that's why you stayed."

"I'm sorry, Casey," Kelly felt like an idiot now.

"I guess I can't get mad at you if it's true...and it's obviously true, I've got _nobody_," Casey sighed.

"You got me," Kelly replied.

Casey smirked and said, "That's not much of a consolation prize, but I'll take it."

Kelly just laughed in response.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Last chapter, thanks for reading and reviewing!

The next night as Kelly headed up the stairs to go to bed, he saw the light was still on in Casey's room, and thought it wouldn't hurt to check on him. He knocked on the doorframe as he stuck his head in. "Hey Casey, you alright?"

Casey was on his back with his arms over his head trying to read a fat paperback pocket book, and based on the pained squinting and blinking of his eyes, not getting very far.

"You okay?" Kelly asked as he stepped over to the bed.

He glanced at the cover and noticed it was a Stephen King book, and based on where Casey was holding the book, looked like he was halfway through it.

"I started this book six months ago and forgot about it, I can't sleep so I thought I'd try it again," Casey blinked and scrunched his face up in discomfort. "My eyes hurt."

Kelly hovered over him and tried to get a good look at them. The whites were slightly pink like he'd gotten sunburned.

"What's wrong with them?"

"I don't know, they just hurt, I can't focus."

Kelly thought for a minute and asked him, "Want me to read to you?"

Casey looked at him through the corners of his eyes and replied, "This isn't getting awkward enough for you?"

Kelly laughed. "Gimme the book."

"Okay," Casey tiredly grumbled and handed it over. Kelly sat at the foot of the bed and started reading from where he presumed Casey left off, and noticed Casey closing his eyes to rest them, he wasn't sure if he'd fall asleep like that or not but steadily read through 20 pages, and then suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Casey asked, his eyes still shut.

Kelly looked up from the page and said in a disgusted tone, "I can't read this."

Casey yawned and responded, "Sound it out."

Kelly did a double take, then smacked Casey with the book on the top of his head and told him, "No, _this_ is too awkward, you want to know what happens next you'll have to read it for yourself." And with that he tossed the book and it landed on Casey's chest.

Casey got out a small laugh and replied, "Thanks anyway."

"You want me to stay with you tonight?" Kelly asked.

Casey yawned again. "No thanks."

"Okay," Kelly stood up and headed for the door, "See you in the morning."

"Mm-hm," Casey tiredly hummed.

* * *

Kelly sat at the kitchen table and squinted one eye in response to the loud noise from the next room of Casey blowing his nose. He wasn't sure what took so long but Matt was finally working his way through the boxes of Kleenex Severide bought, he averaged about one box per day, he'd gone through three boxes already and there still didn't seem to be an end in sight. And all the while Casey made as much noise as a fog horn, it was definitely a hell of a wakeup call in the middle of the night. If he didn't know any better he'd think Casey was actually trying to literally blow his brains out.

"You okay?" he asked as Casey entered the kitchen.

Casey sniffed and responded, "Yeah, fine." He grabbed another tissue from the box on the table, and Kelly got ready for the next round of noise.

This time it was short lived, choked, and followed immediately with Casey grunting in distress.

"What?" Kelly turned, and for a second froze when he saw the red staining the Kleenex.

Casey groaned as he grabbed another Kleenex and switched them and tried to pinch off the nosebleed.

"I told you you were blowing too hard."

"Shut up," Casey got out in a simultaneously muffled and nasal response.

Casey turned to lean over the sink and Kelly saw a drop of blood hit the porcelain and it spattered into several smaller drops, and another, and another, the small drops spattering all over the sink, the bottom and the sides, and some spattered back onto Casey's shirt. Five minutes passed, the standard amount of time to pinch off a nose bleed, and it hadn't stopped. Frustrated, Casey tossed the Kleenex in the trash and just let the blood freely spill into the sink, which in just a few seconds strongly resembled a crime scene.

"You're supposed to tilt your head back," Kelly told him as he handed Casey a handful of new Kleenex.

Casey shook his head and leaned further over the sink and started choking. His whole body racked back and forth with each retch, and a noise that sounded like his throat being ripped open emanated from him as he opened his mouth and coughed up something large and dark red into the sink.

Even for all the graphic things Kelly saw every day on the job as a firefighter, he looked at the massive blood clot that was too big to fit down the drain and recoiled in disgust and exclaimed, "Oh my God." He turned to his friend, "Casey! Are you alright?"

The captain's response was to fold another Kleenex, and blow his nose again, which to Kelly made a very disturbing sound, and even Casey looked sickened by the second blood clot that had come out. For a split second, Kelly saw it and he lost the ability to even think. What Casey had just blown out of his nose was one third the size of his hand.

"What the hell?" Casey weakly asked.

Kelly recovered from his shock and asked him, "Are you okay now?"

Casey cast one more morbidly curious glance at the tissue before tossing it into the trash and responded, "Define okay."

Kelly looked at him, the bottom half of Casey's face was streaked and coated and speckled in blood, but it seemed to have finally stopped.

"I think you need to get a humidifier, and some Vaseline," Severide told him.

"I think I need an aspirin," Casey replied with a groan. He absently touched his nose and added with a moan, "And campho-phenique."

* * *

Kelly woke up and he was soaking wet. He realized that was because he was holding Casey against him, and Casey was soaking wet.

"Casey," he tiredly grumbled as he pulled his arms away from the blonde man.

Casey murmured something in his sleep against Kelly's chest.

"Casey, wake up," Kelly tried again, "I think your fever broke."

But Matt just turned over so he was more on his own side of the bed again.

"Come on, Casey, get up and go take a shower, you're soaked," Kelly told him.

If Casey actually heard Kelly he paid him very little mind, instead he hugged his pillow and curled on his side.

Kelly could see he wasn't going to get anywhere being polite about it, so to really grab Casey's attention, he reached over and popped Casey on the ass, the noise of which rang through the otherwise quiet room like a gunshot. That drew a sharp yelp of pain into the pillow, then Casey slowly turned back over and faced him glaringly. "You have my attention," he said dryly.

"Go take a shower," Kelly said again, "I'll get the sheets changed."

"It's 2 o' clock in the morning," Casey whined as he buried his head under the pillow.

"I don't _care_ what time it is," Kelly replied, "go get cleaned up."

Casey sighed, then reluctantly put the pillow aside, got up and headed to the bathroom.

* * *

15 minutes later Casey returned to the bedroom showered and changed and Kelly had put a fresh set of sheets on the bed and tossed the others in the basket for morning.

"Feeling better?" Kelly asked.

"A little."

"You smell better."

Casey made a face at him.

"You look better," he added.

"I guess that counts for something."

"Fever's gone, you should make a quick recovery now," Kelly told him.

"I hope so," Casey replied as he crawled back into bed. As Kelly got back in beside him, Casey asked, "Did you see Boden today?"

"Yeah, he can at least talk now without trying to hack up a lung, but still...kind of unnerving seeing a guy like that on a nebulizer."

"How much longer's he gonna be on that?" Casey asked.

"Docs figure another week."

Casey grimaced, "Scary."

"I know." Kelly turned and looked at him. "Now you know why I've been on your ass to take it easy."

Casey got out a small laugh and replied, "Thanks."

* * *

Kelly stood at the bottom of the stairs and watched as Casey ran down the six story fire escape, it was one of the buildings that most of the local firefighters used for training and everybody knew the layout like the back of their hand. He'd already done this five times already, and it was obvious he was still wearing out easily, but he was determined to make it one more time before quitting.

"Hey that's great, buddy," he said when Casey reached the bottom, "better call it good for now."

Casey breathed in and out heavily for a few seconds, but composed himself. "I'm getting there."

"I know you are." Kelly had been putting something off but decided this was as good a time as any to bring it up. "Look, Casey, there's something I wanted to tell you."

"Since I'm out of the woods you're going back to 51?" Casey guessed.

"How'd you know?"

Casey shrugged, "Time's right, I can take care of myself."

"I know...I just...had to see it for myself, you know?"

"I know, and I appreciate it." Casey leaned over and hugged Kelly tight. "Thanks for being there for me when I needed someone."

"Hey I'll still come over after shift," Kelly told him.

"Thanks." Casey pulled back and asked him, "Heard from Boden?"

"Yeah, doctors finally cleared him to go home, he's going to be back at 51 next week," Kelly answered.

Casey nodded. "Good."

"Hey, it won't be long, you'll be back too."

"I know it," Casey said, then added, "I wonder how nobody else got sick?"

Kelly shrugged. "Who knows? Flu's a strange thing."

Casey got a blank look on his face, and a small, unamused laugh escaped him. "You know what this year is?"

Kelly looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Casey looked him in the eyes and answered, "100 years since the Spanish flu pandemic."

Matt could actually see a light come on in Kelly's eyes with recognition as he responded, "Killed 50 million people."

"Nearly a million of them right here in this country," Casey added.

"My God...you don't think..."

"I don't know," Casey shook his head, "but I wonder what's going to happen 100 years from now."

Kelly snorted and replied, "the bright side is we'll be dead and won't know about it."

"Gee, why isn't that comforting?" Casey remarked cynically.

The two had a small laugh about it, then headed for Severide's car.

* * *

Casey heard somebody knocking on the front door, and had a good idea who it was. He opened it and was not surprised to see Kelly standing on the porch.

"How'd it go yesterday?" he asked.

"Good, but it'll definitely be better when Boden's back, this interim chief they sent us is a real idiot," Kelly answered as he stepped in, "how're you doing?"

Casey shrugged. "Fever's gone, I can breathe pretty well, I'm not tired all the time...I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be waiting on before I go back to work."

"Just give it a few more days, you've come too far to relapse now," Kelly told him.

"Easy for you to say," Casey replied as they headed to the living room.

"You eating?" Kelly asked.

"Yes," Casey answered.

"You resting?"

"_Yes_," Casey answered in annoyance.

"You're not lying, are you?" Kelly asked.

"Cut it out," Casey elbowed him in the ribs. As they sat down on the couch Casey asked, "So how's the House adjusting without Gabby?"

"Honestly?" Kelly asked. "It's getting to be like she was never there."

Casey sighed and shook his head, "This isn't what I wanted."

"Nobody's blaming you."

"I didn't want her to leave."

"I know," Kelly said, remembering the barrage of texts Casey had sent her the night before he got sick, all of them he recalled unanswered. He looked over at Matt and asked him, "How are _you_ adjusting without her?"

Casey exhaled and answered, "I don't know...I miss her."

"That's natural," Kelly said.

"I really didn't think she'd leave over this," Casey said.

"Yeah, but would you actually still want her around?" Kelly asked.

Casey thought about it for a few seconds, then decided, "I suppose not."

Kelly reached over, put a hand on Casey's shoulder and pulled the captain against him. "It'll get easier, just give it time."

He felt Casey's breath on his neck as the blonde man sighed, "I just..."

"What?"

Casey shook his head, "Nothing."

"Matt..."

"I just hate being alone," he admitted.

Kelly glanced down at him and responded, "I know."

Severide was mildly surprised by the arm that suddenly wrapped around his chest and ribs but didn't let on to it.

"Thanks for coming over," Casey said.

Kelly smiled and told him, "No problem."

* * *

"There he is!" Otis announced as Casey walked on the apparatus floor with Severide just before the start of shift. "Casey, thank God, since you've been gone, Herrmann's been filling in for you and between you and me...he's _terrible_!"

"I heard that!" Herrmann said as he headed over to the others. "Glad to have you back, Casey, it ain't been the same without you."

"Thanks, Herrmann," Casey replied.

"How're you feeling, Casey?" Cruz asked.

"I'll let you know after a few calls," Matt answered.

"Casey."

Everybody turned at that voice and they saw Boden walking up the driveway.

"Chief."

"Looks like I'm the last one in," Wallace told his men. "Good to see you're back, Casey."

"Thanks, Chief, it's good to be back," Casey responded, then realized that this was Boden's first shift back too, "You look good."

"After being in that hospital for two weeks I still feel like crap," the battalion chief told them. "However I'm sure a couple fires will put an end to that." That got a good laugh out of everybody. "Alright, let's get ready."

"Copy that," Casey said as he and Severide headed for the locker room to get changed for shift.


End file.
